Corporations, business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs need accurate data to make good decisions. Every day, organizations and individuals make critical decisions about whether to build a new factory, expand operations, trade securities, and borrow money, among many others.
This makes firing Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Erika McEntarfer – on fabricated grounds that the Bureau of Labor Statistics “rigged” data in the most recent jobs report to make Trump look bad – a huge problem for American businesses. American corporations and investors can no longer trust government economic data on the US economy going forward. It’s clear that Trump will quash any bad news and publish only rosy numbers and optimistic projections.
MAGA will cheer this news and line up to say that if Trump says it’s so then it must be so. The jobs report was rigged and McEntarfer should go to prison! We’re really in great shape on the employment front! The economy is growing! Prices are low again!
Trump has fixed everything! He’s the best President ever!
Others will see this for what it is: an effort to stroke Trump’s ego by tricking people into thinking things are fine when they are not.
Everyone should understand that even if labor data has little or no impact on decisions that affect your bottom line, this will not be the last time Trump cooks the data analysis books to make his policies look better than they really are. He’ll do this again.
Regular people who watch prices on life’s necessities while they can’t find work won’t be fooled by rosy data saying inflation is down and the economy is booming.
Corporations, business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs won’t be fooled either they see the fabricated upward revisions Trump will expect, and get, from whatever flunky he appoints to the job. They know they’ll be forced to make billion-dollar decisions in an information vacuum.
If you’re a CEO, small business owner, entrepreneur, or individual investor who supports Trump, this of all things should wake you up, even if extralegal detentions of citizens and lawful US residents did not.
Fingers crossed.
[Cross-posted on LInkedIn with minor edits.]